The Russian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society of the United States of America on its 20th Anniversary

Description

This commemorative album celebrates the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society. The album contains a historical overview of the society and its work, reports on the meetings of the society, reports and statements on activities, the society’s anthem and prayers, along with portraits of the chairmen and members of the society. The Russian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society was one of several organizations founded to support the community of Eastern Rite Catholics, or Uniates, who had immigrated to the United States. These organizations were primarily based in Pennsylvania, where these immigrants settled. The Russian Orthodox Catholic Mutual Aid Society was founded in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Despite being identified as “Russian,” the members were actually Rusyns (now called Ruthenians), natives of the Carpathian Mountains region. The album was compiled by Peter Kohanik, who was the chairman of the society at the time. A native of present-day Slovakia, Kohanik emigrated to the United States in 1903 and served in a number of Uniate parishes in Pennsylvania and New York. Published in New York in 1915, the album is preserved in the collections of the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg. It was digitized for the Meeting of Frontiers digital library project in the early 2000s.